Former NFL player Ben Watson, a University of Georgia graduate, applauds that states new abortion law which bans most abortions once a fetal heartbeat is detected.

“We can’t forget or miss that life begins at conception,” Watson said on Fox News Channel. “We need to be people that protect personhood. That no matter what the stage of development or an environment a person is in, their life is worth protecting, and we need to be people that stand for that, especially in a country that professes to be one that stands for liberty and justice.”

“Life begins at conception. We need to be people that protect personhood. No matter what the stage of development or the environment that a person is in, their life is worth protecting. Especially in a country that stands for liberty and justice." @BenjaminSWatsonpic.twitter.com/7k0HmGktvG

Fox News anchor Sandra Smith said to Watson about the bill: “This would be at about six weeks by the way, that a fetus will first shows signs of a heartbeat.”

Watson doesn’t agree with this theory.

“The heartbeat starts actually in 18 days, between 16 and 18 days,” Watson said. “Before we can even detect it, these babies have a heartbeat. They have everything that they need in their DNA, in their makeup, to become humans that we see walking around.”

The 15-year NFL tight end, who recently retired, was troubled by Virginia Governor Ralph Northam’s recent statement that seemed to support third trimester abortions.

“If a mother is in labor, I can tell you exactly what would happen, the infant would be delivered,” Northam said on WTOP Radio. “The infant would be kept comfortable. The infant would be resuscitated if that’s what the mother and the family desired, and then a discussion would ensue between the physicians and the mother.”

“I was horrified by hearing about what the Governor of Virginia said about having an abortion when the baby is on the table,” Watson said.

Watson’s also not a fan of Roe v. Wade, a Supreme Court decision stating that the 14th Amendment extends to a woman’s decision to have an abortion.

“When you look at the 1973 Roe V. Wade, and the 60 million children that have been killed since then, this is just part of the issue,” Watson said. “That decision, made at that time, was unjust and unconstitutional, and we can argue about that. But what I think is going to happen at some point, something is going to come to the Supreme Court, and we are going to have to have a decision.”

While Watson is Pro-Life, he feels it’s important to engage people on the other side of the issue with “grace.”

“I think that right now I think we need to enter this conversation with grace, we need to enter it with compassion, not simply trying to win, not simply trying to point at the other side, and condemn the other side, but with the idea that we want to be people who stand for life, and we also want to have compassion for the men and the women that are going through these tough decisions on a daily basis,” Watson said.